Abstract
The purpose of the study was to describe behavioral characteristics of Mexican-born students attending United States high schools and their attitudes toward the school environment. In addition, the study compared the differences between (1) students with high and low academic achievement, (2) students with high and low parental educational background, and (3) girls and boys. The sample for the study was one hundred Mexican-born students attending two north Orange County, California, high schools. There were fifty-one girls and forty-nine boys. The study was descriptive in nature. There were three independent variables: academic achievement, parental educational background, and gender. The Effective School Battery (Gottfredson 1991) was used to measure dependent variables that included eleven behavioral characteristics and six attitudes. The behavioral characteristics were: positive peer associations, educational expectation, social integration, attachment to school, belief in rules, interpersonal competency, involvement, positive self-concept, school effort, avoidance of punishment, and school rewards. The attitudes were: safety, respect for students, planning and action, fairness and rules, and student influence. The results showed that high-achieving Mexican-born students compared to low-achieving students scored significantly higher on educational expectation, social integration, positive self-concept, school effort, avoidance of punishment, and fairness and rules. Students whose fathers had a higher level of education scored significantly higher on belief in rules, safety, and clarity of rules. The only significant difference between the Mexican-born girls and boys was on one behavioral characteristic, where girls scored higher on positive peer associations. Further exploration revealed 95 percent of the Mexican-born students indicated that their best friend was not a gang member and 96 percent said that their friends did not get in trouble with the police. The students felt a moderate degree of "belongingness" and generally perceived themselves as a part of the school. Although 75 percent of the students felt that their teachers treated them with respect, only half thought that their teachers felt they were very important. The mean scores for the Mexican-born students were all higher than the White normative sample students. For the Mexican-born girls compared to the White normative sample, there were significant differences on positive peer associations and attachment to the school. For the Mexican-born boys compared to the White normative sample, there were significant differences on positive peer association, social integration, interpersonal competency, positive self-concept, school effort, avoidance of punishment, and school rewards. The results were discussed in terms of a theoretical framework, social identity theory, and the challenges they provided to address the stereotypical impressions of Mexican-born students.